GoTo Group in ‘execution mode’ for TikTok’s ecommerce, fintech integrations

GoTo Group CEO Patrick Walujo / Photo credit: Northstar Group

GoTo Group began 2023 with persistent adjusted EBITDA losses and an “unsustainable” cash burn. But the year – which included the blockbuster merger deal involving TikTok Shop and Tokopedia – turned out to be a “transformative” one for the company, said CEO Patrick Walujo in GoTo’s most recent earnings call.

“We carried out a comprehensive strategy review that showed us a path to winning back the mass market segment and the volumes it brings,” Walujo said in the call, which came as the company achieved its first-ever positive adjusted EBITDA.

“Although this balancing of profitability and growth is an ongoing journey, in the fourth quarter, we saw some real success.”

Now, the focus will be on “execution,” Walujo said, referring to the the full integration of TikTok Shop and Tokopedia.

While GoTo ecommerce president Melissa Siska Juminto declined to disclose the post-merger gross merchandise value, she said the group is confident that they will meet “or even exceed our expectations” going forward.

While Teten Masduki, Indonesia’s minister of cooperatives and SMEs, recently said that TikTok Shop is still violating local regulations, Juminto stressed that the Ministry of Trade is the relevant body regulating Tokopedia’s operations

“Our objective is to achieve compliance while ensuring a seamless user experience. We are on track to complete this within the trial period – a fact that was recently acknowledged publicly by the Ministry of Trade representative,” Juminto said, referring to a previous statement from Isy Karim, the ministry’s director general for domestic trade.

GoTo’s partnership with TikTok doesn’t stop at ecommerce. GoTo Financial head Thomas Husted confirmed in the earnings call that they are in the process of launching a buy now, pay later product with TikTok.

Playing into this is GoTo’s recent high-level hire of David Chen, former CEO of BNPL player Atome, as its head of consumer lending.

“Our goal and our aim is that GoTo Financial ends up as the most preferred partner with both TikTok Shop as well as Tokopedia’s platform,” said Husted.

Additionally, Walujo said there’s an opportunity for GoTo’s consumer lending offering to scale in line with Tokopedia’s growth. Deeper integrations between GoTo’s ecommerce and fintech arms are also in the pipeline.

Despite GoTo’s profitability milestone, however, its stock price dipped 4.2% to 69 rupiah (US$0.0044) at today’s market opening.

See also: What GoPay’s new standalone app says about GoTo’s ‘super-app’ strategy